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REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 16, 1915
CONSTITUTION APPROVED IN THE MAIN
But the Real Estate Board Leaves Its Members Free
to Exercise Personal Judgment on the Amendments
AT a meeting of the Board of Gov¬
ernors of the Real Estate Board
of New York, held on Wednesday, Octo¬
ber 13, the report of the Board's Com¬
mittee on Constitutional Amendments
was adopted. In adopting this resolu¬
tion the Board of Governors leaves it
to the individual judgment of each mem¬
ber as to how he shall vote on the vari¬
ous amendments. In the report special
emphasis is laid upon such portions of
the Constitution as relate to taxation
and finance. The Board of Governors
also endorsed the proposed amendment
for an issue of $27,000,000 of canal
bonds.
The report of the Board's Committee
on Constitutional Amendments follows:
To the Board of Governors, Real
Estate Board of New York: Your
committee appointed for the purpose
of considering the provisions of the
proposed amendments to the Constitu¬
tion of the State of New York i^dieves
that the Real Estate Board of New
York should, in the interest of the State,
record its approval of the prevailing
provisions of the work of the conven¬
tion, and submits the following n.;',sons:
Article 1, Section 7 (a) provides for
the payment for properly required for
city purposes prior to taking posses¬
sion; this provision alone is of great
importance to the property holder and
would relieve an intolerable situation,
which has frequently happened.
Section 7 (d) provides for excess con¬
demnation on a just basis and the pro¬
vision relating to abandoned streets is
clearly in the interest of the taxpayer.
Article 3, Section 21, provides in the
second paragraph for a condition prece¬
dent to the appropriation of any money
for public building purposes, which defi¬
nitely fixes the cost of the work so that
the Legislature may not appropriate an
excessive or insufircient sum to carry
the project to completion. The present
method of appropriation for public build¬
ing purposes is unscientific since a bur¬
den is often fixed upon the State because
of entering into operations in a manner
that would not be tolerated by any in¬
telligent investor.
Section 23 provides for a remedy lo
the evil of concealment of appropriation
in what is called the "supply bill" which
is really intended to carry appropria¬
tions for deficiencies existing under acts
already authorized.
Manufacturing in Tenements.
Section 29. The Legislature is given
authority to regulate the use of tenement
houses as factories. Supervision over
tenements is already exercised by the
Labor Department. The committee
points out that on the one hand prohi¬
bition of the use of tenements for fac¬
tory purposes might injure some tene¬
ments, and on the other hand, the use of
tenements as factories places an unequal
burden on those who have to oliey the
factory laws as applied tiT factory build¬
ings. The committee wishes to call this
section to the special attention of the
Board of Governors.
Article 5. Tliis article provides for
a State Budf.ot and is in line with mod¬
ern thought on the subject of State
finances. It is required, among other
things, that appropriation bills be ac¬
companied b.y a statement showing the
financial condition of the State for the
two years preceding that for which the
appropriation is requested. The com¬
mittee endorses this section.
Article 6 provides for a co-ordination
of the departments of the State which
should appeal to every citizen as a
straight forward business necessity.
.'\rticle 7 provides for the appointment
"of a superintendent of conservation by a
board of commissioners whose term of
office is so arranged that it will be a
continuing board, thus practically remov¬
ing the office from political control, but
placing full responsibility for the actions
of the superintendent on the commis¬
sioners, and also removing from the Leg¬
islature the necessity of passing innu¬
merable bills relating to some small fish
in some small pond, or stream in the
State.
Will Relieve the Superintendent.
Article 8 provides for more prompt
remedy in action by law, and within the
City of New York. It provides for the
extension of the Court of General Ses¬
sions throughout all counties in the city
as a criminal court, and the City Court
as a civil court with jurisdiction to the
sum of three thousand dollars; the
judges now serving as County Judges to
serve their terms as judges of the Court
of General Sessions; the judges to be
elected in their own counties but to
serve by assignment in any of the coun¬
ties within the city. This provision is
clearly in the interest of the residents
of our city as it will tend to relieve the
Supreme Court.
Section 29 of this article provides for
judicial authentications of titles and with
proper enabling act this section would
be of the greatest value to the owners
of real property.
Bond Issues.
Article 9 provides for the substitution
of serial bonds for sinking fund bonds
and for the gradual retirement of sink¬
ing fund bonds if the owners of such
bonds so elect; those of our board who
are familiar with the evils of the present
deferment of the payment of the city
debt and all the attendant evils in rela¬
tion to the sinking fund, must fully real¬
ize that the provisions as proposed for
the State should be adopted for our
city; an examination of the debts ac¬
quired by the city for purposes no longer
useful though not yet paid for, will dem¬
onstrate the absolute necessity of estab¬
lishing some approximate relation of the
period of usefulness to the period of
payment of the debt.
Attention is called to the fact that
.Section 2 of this article removes the ex¬
isting constitutional limit of $1,000,000,
the amount for which the State Treas¬
urer may issue bonds in anticipation ot
the receipt of taxes and revenues. The
proposed constitution does not provide
for a direct tax to pay the interest on
bonds.
Article 10 provides for a State system
of correction of assessment of taxes
which in the case of a direct tax would
be of great importance to the City of
New York.
Article IS provides that cities have the
right without reference to the Legisla¬
ture to manage all their departments,
and to fix the compensation and terms
of office of all city employes (except
judicial officers and employes), in fact,
provides for a complete system of home
rule in all matters other than general
State laws applying to all cities equally.
This measure is an advance in municipal
government and should be carefully con¬
sidered by the board. The committee
einphasizes the point that, in its opinion,
cities of the first class cannot be ex¬
empted from the provisions of any gen¬
eral law applying to cities of the State.
The Recommendations.
Tlie committee wishes to call the at¬
tention of the governors to the follow¬
ing points involved in this section, viz.:
I. Consolidation of building inspec¬
tion would be a local matter.
II. New York City could not be ex¬
empted from the provisions of the La¬
bor Law, unless all cities in the State
were e.xempted.
III. The Mayor and the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment would
have the absolute veto of all valid acts
of the Board of Aldermen in respect
to changing the Charter without ap¬
peal from their veto.
Finally: Your committee wishes to
emphasize the fact that all of the im¬
portant amendments were approved by
the convention without partisan bias, a
majority of the Democratic minority
having voted for the approval of such
amendments. Those members of your
board who were delegates to the con¬
vention testify that in this committee
work there never was at any time any
evidence of partisanship.
Your committee recognizes that there
IS always a fair difference of opinion as
to the ultimate result of any change in
the fundamental law, but feels that these
diflferences should be carefully consid¬
ered when compared with the acknowl¬
edged benefit to the State from the
adoption of the finance provisions in¬
cluding the budget and the basis of debt
requirements; the improvement in the
judicial system, the wise and just change
in relation to the taking of property, and
the other good changes which are pro¬
posed.
Your committee submits herewith a
letter to a member of your committee
from Mr. Henry L. Stimson. chairman
of the Committee on Finance of the
Constitutional Convention, who has
served as LTnited States District Attor¬
ney for New York, and as Secretary of
War of the United States; this letter
expresses in a broad way the result of the
â– work of the convention. Other support¬
ing papers are attached.
Your committee submits its report
with a belief that you should be recorded
as approving in the main the work of
the Constitutional Convention of 1915.
This report is signed by the following:
George W. Olvany. Alfred G. Reeves,
William P. Bannister, Henry R. Chit¬
tick. Theodore L. Waugh. Carlisle Nor¬
wood, William C. Breed, Samuel P. Gold¬
man.